Aliens have contacted humans several times but governments have hidden the truth for 60 years, the sixth man to walk on the moon has claimed.

Apollo 14 astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell, said he was aware of many UFO visits to Earth during his career with NASA but each one was covered up.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'

He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.

Chillingly, he claimed our technology is 'not nearly as sophisticated' as theirs and "had they been hostile", he warned 'we would be been gone by now'.

Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission.

'I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real,' Dr Mitchell said.

'It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

'I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes - we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it's been happening quite a bit.'

Dr Mitchell, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics claimed Roswell was real and similar alien visits continue to be investigated.

He told the astonished Kerrang! radio host Nick Margerrison: "This is really starting to open up. I think we're headed for real disclosure and some serious organisations are moving in that direction.'

Mr Margerrison said: 'I thought I'd stumbled on some sort of astronaut humour but he was absolutely serious that aliens are definitely out there and there's no debating it.'

Officials from NASA, however, were quick to play the comments down.

In a statement, a spokesman said: "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe.

'Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue.'

The 1958 Trindade Island Brazil "saturn"-shaped UFO was photographed while being seen by more qualified observers than any other sighting.

When ufologists can't find strings, shadows or signs that a UFO photo is faked, they question the credibility of the photographer and witnesses. Trained observers -including pilots, ship captains etc- are generally considered good witnesses. It is the credibility of the 47 crew members on the deck of the Brazilian Navy ship "Almirante Saldanha" that makes the Trindade, Brazil UFO photos so interesting.

As part of its contribution to the 1957-58 International Geophysical Year, the Brazilian Navy set up a weather station on the small rocky island of Trindade, in the south Atlantic Ocean. Observers began spotting unusual aerial activity visually and on radar. At noon on 16-Jan-1958, the UFO shown here appeared for a few seconds within view of the ship's company. The incident was not isolated, but at least five other sightings had occurred in the island or near the water during the end of 1957 and in January 1958.

The crew onboard saw a grey object approach the island, fly behind a mountain peak and then do a acute-angle turn around and head back the way it came, disappearing at high speed over the horizon. Among those present was civilian photographer Almiro Barauna, who snapped a series of 6 photos in intervals of ~15 seconds, of which 4 showed the UFO. After the ship returned to port, the photos, which had been developed on board in a makeshift darkroom, were turned over to the Brazilian Navy Ministry. Analysts determined the photos to be authentic and concluded they showed a diskoid object moving at 900-1000Km/hr.

According to Capt. Viegas, the object was like a flattened sphere encircled at the equator by a large ring or platform. In Barauna's words, "...it made no noise, although with the shouting of the people on the deck and the noise of the sea, I cannot be certain. It had a metallic look, of an ash color, and has like a condensation of a green vapor around the perimeter, particularly in the advancing edge. Its motion was undulating, like the flight of a bat."

The photos were later released to the Press by the President of Brazil, Mr Joscelino Kubitschek

The Dragon's Triangle is the antithesis of the Devil's Triangle or Bermuda Triangle which lies off the coast of Florida. The Dragon's Triangle is situated off the coast of Japan almost on the same parallel on exactly the opposite side of the world. Just like the Bermuda Triangle the Dragon's Triangle has generated stories for centuries of strange unworldly events. The Dragon's Triangle however has produced much richer details of highly sophisticated flying craft that enter and leave the waters just off the coast of Japan. These flying craft possess amazing capabilities, according to dozens of eyewitness that have observed the craft. These machines can fly at great speeds and maneuver in any direction with tremendous agility. Perhaps the most impressive capability of these craft are their underwater operations. The craft enter the ocean at high rates of speed and dive or skim just under the surface. The wake created when entering or leaving the water can lift a large ocean vessel dangerously high out of the water. Tales of many ships and crew being lost to these treacherous waters goes back thousands of years. More recently Japan lost five military vessels between 1952 and 1954 with combined crews of 700. Japanese Naval officials alarmed by the loss commissioned a research vessel in 1954 with 31 scientists aboard to investigate the strange disappearances. The Kaiyo Maru No. 5 was sent into the heart of the Dragon's triangle and was never heard from again. The Japanese government quickly declared the area a hazard and extremely dangerous to shipping.
Japan has a rich and fascinating history with regards to UFOs. The culture has recorded many accounts of encounters with UFOs and their operators. One painting discovered on a cave wall documents two UFOs and their pilots hovering over a herd of wild game animals holding weapons that look like rifles and taking aim at the herd. This is a matter of fact illustration created by someone who most likely witnessed this event. This would seem to have very powerful ramifications. Dozens of these incredible images are known to exist, another color image from 900 A.D. clearly addresses the siting of a flying disc. The highly technical drawing features portals and what appears to be a hatch at the top of the vehicle. One myth that ties all of the recorded sitings together is the enigma of the Dogu. The Dogu figurines have been showing up for centuries, these little clay figures embody the epitome of the modern alien. Thousands have been found and they are believed to be thousands of years old many perhaps dating back 12,000 years. The detail of the figurines is stunning if looked at with modern understanding. The Dogu appear to be wearing a pressure suit. This suit is depicted with valves, gauges, vents, hoses, fittings and a very sophisticated helmet that features large goggles with articulating irises. On the surface these figures could represent the pilots of the craft that have been seen for centuries emanating from the Dragon's triangle. The suits wore by the Dogu could have been both protection from the vacuum of space and the pressures of the deep ocean. One ancient Japanese myth describes how the Dogu came from the ocean each day out onto the land to assist villagers. The Dogu gave instructions to the primitive people on virtually every subject and helped them with learning how to make everyday life easier and more enjoyable. What ever the inspiration for the Dogu figurines it was powerful. The clay spacemen have been found all over the entire country and in great numbers. It is possible that they were seen and interpreted as gods. Their popularity undoubtedly spread across the whole ancient Japanese culture and they were warmly worshiped. Is the Dragon's Triangle just an unstable geological vortex? Are the hundreds of sightings of advanced flying craft a side effect of ocean sickness? In the Atlantium continuum the answer is "NO". In a court of law an overwhelming preponderance of evidence can send a man to the gallows without one stitch of physical evidence. If this same tenant were to be applied to the mystery of the Dragon's Triangle the conclusions could be simply astonishing. ATLANTIUM. Roc Hatfield/Author

Using letters one inch high the Halifax Herald of October 7,1967 informed its readers that two days earlier a UFO had crashed into the waters of the "Sound" adjacent to Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. As those of us that live here can attest, this was a startling headline for what was and still is a very conservative, provincially circulated, daily newspaper. The Herald informed the public that Laurie Wickens, the first of eleven people, had reported to the RCMP Detachment in Barrington Passage, Shelburne County on Nova Scotia's South Shore that an airliner or airplane had crashed into the Sound next to Shag Harbour late in the evening of October 4th.

Wickens and four of his friends were driving through the village of Shag Harbour on Highway 3 at a few minutes after 11 p.m. ADT when they spotted something unusual above and in front of their car. A large object flashing four sequential lights, amber coloured descended at a modest rate of speed at an angle of approximately forty five-degrees. From their vanatage point it looked like the object was going to go down into the waters of the Harbour.

Wickens endevoured to keep the object in sight while he drove his vehicle through the village and westward to the otherside whereupon at this point the UFO dissappeared behind some trees and a small hill. It was only a matter of seconds before he rounded a turn from behind the hill which brought him to right up to the Shore of "The Sound" a body of water adjacent to Shag Harbour.

Wickens drove onto the gravelled shore-side parking lot of an Irish Moss Plant. The five witnesses sprang from their car, ran to the water's edge and stood watching a "Dark Object" floating or hovering just above the water. The flashing lights had extinguished to be replaced with one pale, constant yellow light that appeared to be on top of the object located about eight or nine hundred feet from their position and drifting with the ebbtide. Records show and the witnesses have stated that on the night of October 4,1967 the night was cool and extremely clear with no moon. The winds were calm and the sky a blanket of stars.

Laurie Wickens' friends were as excited as himself. Concerned, they debated for a moment what to do. Wickens decided finally that rather than drive ten miles back to the RCMP detachment in Barrington Passage or wake up someone in the village, he would go a short distance west to the village of Wood's Harbour and use a pay telephone at a gas station. There he contacted RCMP Corporal Werbicki and reported that he saw a big airplane or small airliner crash into the Sound next to "the Harbour". The eighteen year old fisherman was surprised when Werbicki asked him if he had been drinking. Wickens denied this and was then told to hang up but to remain by the payphone.

Werbicki had a couple of constables over in that area and was about to contact them by radio when his phone rang once more and was informed by Mary Banks on Maggie Garron's Point, an area adjoining the "Sound" and Prospect Point at the western end of Shag Harbour, that she saw an airplane crash into the "Sound". That was enough for Werbicki. He contacted his constables, Ron O'Brien and Ron Pond and ordered them back to the detachment. Two more calls came in, one from a man in nearby Bear Point and another from two women over on Cape Sable Island 13 miles away, claiming she and another woman had seen the same thing. The man in Bear Point claimed he hear a whistle and a bang. Earlier one of Wickens' companions said she heard a whistling noise and a whoose. Corporal Werebicki called Wickens back,asking him to meet himself and the other Mounties at the Moss Plant.

Shortly before Laurie Wickens and his friends pursued the object through the village of Shag Harbour, two eighteen year old fishermen a few miles to the east of Shag Harbour were returning from a date with their girfriends on Cape Sable Island. They had just entered a portion of Highway 3 that runs across the base of Bear Point when the passenger, Norman Smith, pointed out to the driver, David Kendrick, an unusual object in the night sky hanging at a 45 degree angle pointing down toward Shag Harbour. They noted four to five amber or orange coloured lights flashing sequentially and what for a moment Norm thought might be the windows of an airliner. Dave Kendricks had to satisfy himself with only occasional glimpses of the object while driving along a narrow,twisting and hilly road bordered on either side by knarled and stunted, spruce trees blasted by years of nor'easters. They soon lost sight of the object behind the treeline in the direction of Shag Harbour some two miles distant.

Minutes later Dave dropped Norm off at his house and left, eager to get home to bed because he had an early start the next morning. Norm though was walking toward the house when he spotted the object again, this time nearly down to the "Harbour". He ran inside and pulled his father Wifred out to the front yard. He was intime to observe the object drop behind a small hill a short distance away. He agreed with Norm that it must have gone down into the "Harbour" and they decided to go there to see if there was anything they could do. Both men were sure it was an airliner in distress. Wifred hurried back inside to get dressed.

The distance between Highway 3 and the shoreline of the Sound at the Irish Moss Plant is about one hundred feet and affords an unobstucted view out into the "Sound"to the south. It is bound on the left by Maggie Garron's Point and Prospect point and to right by "the Outer Island" a three mile long by quarter mile wide strip of rock and sand covered by spruce trees and marsh grass. Between the two shores is the body of water, known as the "Sound", about two miles wide and four miles long and open to the Atlantic Ocean. Drifting placidly upon the "Sound"on a gentle swell about twelve hundred feet from the Moss Plant and a quarter mile east of Outer Island, was a "Dark Object".

Laurie Wickens and his friends stood once more on the shore and watched it. Moments later two RCMP cruisers crunched onto the gravel parking lot followed shortly after by Norm and Wifred Smith in their pickup. Everyone stood and watched for a moment. Werbicki had to have the object pointed out to him by Wickens, but eventually he too spotted the pale yellow light on the craft and the dark area below it which he figured was about sixty feet wide. Norm Smith estimated the height of the object to be about ten feet by measuring it against the height of a buoy called the "Budget Light" nearby.

Now that he could see it with his own eyes, Werbicki was concerned for survivors that might either be on the object or in the water. He gave orders for Constable Pond to start taking statements and to keep an eye on the light. He ordered Constable O'Brien to go to one of the houses nearby, contact by telephone the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, advise them of the situation and ask them to try and determine what aircraft might have gone in the waters here or if any were missing. In the meantime he was going to another house and call two of the local fishermen who had their own boats and get someone out there as soon as possible. But before they could leave one of the witnesses yelled that it was going down.

Everybody turned their attention to the "dark object". It was evident it was slipping under the waters of the Sound. The pale yellow light extinguished and the object disappeared from sight. Only five or six minutes had passed, barely enough time to react, and now there was no time left. Werbicki and O'Brien left the area to carry out their tasks.

Bradford Shand and Lawrence Smith, Norman Smith's uncle, were two of the first fishingboat owners contacted and each agreed immediatly to go to their boats berthed at the Government Wharf at the center of the village. Two of the Mounties, Werbicki and O'Brien split up, one each to a boat. Constable Pond was left to continue his interviews with the witnesses.

Young Norm Smith went out with Brad Shand while Wifred, his father, climbed aboard his brother Lawrence's boat. Within minutes they had cast off and were making to the west of the harbour, through the channel at Prospect Point and out onto the Sound.

In the lead, Lawrence Smith took a sighting on the "Budget Light" and began to run down on it. One mile out on the Sound they ran into the first evidence of the Dark Object they had watched from the shore, a 3 or 4 inch thick,glittery, yellow foam stretching down the Sound for a half mile and about two boat lengths or eighty feet wide. Bubbles roiled to the surface in places, and there was the smell of sulpher in the area.

Neither Lawrence Smith nor Bradford Shand were fussy about sailing through the stuff and expressed concerns about buoyancy. But their choices were limited. This was the area where the "airplane" went down and the most likely place for survivors. So with trepidation and a natural reluctance to finally come upon what all of them feared and believed was there, bodies and hopefully some survivors, they carried on their search. Nearly an hour later, still nothing had been found and now Coast Guard Cutter 101 arrived on site from its berth at Cape Sable Island some 15 miles away. It was nearly 12:45 A.M. Local and hope was fading fast for there being any survivors. Werbicki was called to the cabin on Shand's boat. Bradford handed him the mic from the vessel's marine band radio informing him that there was a message from the skipper of the Coast Guard Cutter, Ronnie Newell. Newell reported that he had just received a message from the Rescue Coordination Center the military manned facility in Halifax. All aircraft, both commercial and military were accounted for up and down the eastern seaboard of Atlantic Canada, and well down into New England and no private aircraft were reported missing or overdue.

Corporal Werbicki informed the others on his vessel and the word quickly spread through the now expanded flotilla of six small craft. No airplane had crashed here. That of course made the next question obvious to the searchers. If no airplane had crashed here, then what the hell were they looking for? What indeed.

The Air Desk in Ottawa, that sector of the Royal Canadian Air Force responsible for the gathering and investigation of UFO reports, tagged the sighting as the crash of a UFO and in other reports refer to it as a "dark object". The RCMP in their reports refer to the craft as a UFO. They had no choice for all other explanations for the event did not fit the scenario.

What ever crashed or "landed" in the waters near Shag Harbour was not a meteor, meteor train, space junk or any earthly vehicle. Even errant Soviet or American missile shots have been ruled out as has the possiblity of it being a dropped H-bomb as happened in the waters off Spain.

One thing is for certain. This event was probably the most documented case of a UFO crash in the history of UFO crashes and somehow got missed by UFO researchers over the years, despite the fact that as Case # 34 it was classed as one of the few unsolved cases in the infamous Condon Report. Like Roswell and the "dark object" this case sank into oblivion, not to resurface until Chris styles, later joined by myself, rediscovered it 26 years later. Now 30 years later and four years into the investigation, the evidence has grown to the point that we are certain that what happened at Shag Harbour was only the tip of the iceberg and the beginning of a seven day adventure involving two objects, the navy and airforces of two countries and NORAD.

How can we estimate the number of technological civilizations that might exist among the stars? While working as a radio astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, Dr. Frank Drake (now Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the SETI Institute) conceived an approach to bound the terms involved in estimating the number of technological civilizations that may exist in our galaxy. The Drake Equation, as it has come to be known, was first presented by Drake in 1961 and identifies specific factors thought to play a role in the development of such civilizations. Although there is no unique solution to this equation, it is a generally accepted tool used by the scientific community to examine these factors.

Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, Commander-in-Chief of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, made the following comment to the press in 1954:

"More than 10,000 sightings have been reported, the majority of which cannot be accounted for by any 'scientific' explanation... I am convinced that these objects do exist and that they are not manufactured by any nation on earth. I can therefore see no alternative to accepting the theory that they come from some extraterrestrial source." (Sunday Dispatch, London, July 11, 1954.)

President Jimmy Carter, during his election campaign in May 1976:

" I am convinced that UFOs exist because I've seen one... " (The National Enquirer, June 8, 1976, "The Night I Saw a UFO." Statement confirmed by White House special assistant media liaison, Jim Purks, in an April 20, 1979 letter.)

In October of '69, Jimmy Carter witnessed a UFO. From "Above Top Secret" (book): During his election campaign of 1976 he told the following to reporters:

"It was the darndest thing I've ever seen. It was big, it was very bright, it changed colors and it was about the size of the moon.. We watched it for ten minutes, but none of us could figure out what it was. One thing's for sure, I'll never make fun of people who say they've seen unidentified objects in the sky.”

Professor Hermann Oberth, German rocket expert

"It is my thesis that flying saucers are real and that they are space ships from another solar system. I think that they possibly are manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our earth for centuries.” (Oberth H., "Flying Saucers Come From A Distant World," The American Weekly, October 24, 1954.)

"It is my conclusion that UFOs do exist, are very real, and are spaceships from another or more than one solar system. They are possibly manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race carrying out long-range scientific investigations of our earth for centuries." (UFO News, 1974.)

Gordon Cooper, Astronaut (Mercury), November 9, 1978:

"I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on earth.”

“Every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us. And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity of documents to prove this.”

The strange episode started just after 10.30pm, when the lights were seen hovering slowly over the town before three of them formed a triangular shape with one positioned just to the right.

A few minutes later a fifth came into view travelling towards the others at breakneck speed before slowing down and stopping a short distance away.

Sceptics dismissed the UFOs as nothing more than hot air balloons, fireworks or even lanterns which had broken loose from a local rugby club.

Others, however, claimed the speed and agility of the objects was unlike any known aircraft and said the odd movement, lack of noise and the length of time in the air discounted any man-made explanation.

Tom Hawkes, who captured these amazing images, spotted the lights during his girlfriend Kate Lyall's birthday at the One Elm pub.

He and the 15 other revellers were in the bar when they spotted some commotion outside.

Tom, 30, said: "We walked outside and there was at that time a growing crowd of about 60 people looking up at something in the sky.

"I saw this light appear, then three others. They came over our heads in formation but then manouvered into different positions.

"Three had formed a triangular shape and one was to the right. Then another one came hurtling towards the rest at what looked like a very fast speed. But as it neared them it suddenly slowed and stopped altogether.

"By this time more people had poured out onto the street. Two pubs had emptied, some people had come out of their houses and drivers slowed their cars.

"The objects were there for about half an hour. It was very eerie because they didn't make any sound and they stayed still before moving slowly beyond the horizon. There were no stars in the sky, just them.

"It was the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen and the way in which everyone gathered in the street to watch them reminded me of a scene from Independence Day."

The extraordinary scenes were also witnessed by some of the staff of the One Elm pub.

Chef Kern Griffiths, 26, said: "I saw five lights, we all thought they were hot air balloons at first because the glowing spheres looked like a burst of flames. But I couldn't see any outline of the balloon itself and they were travelling far too fast.

"Suddenly someone shouted 'look' and there were these bright dots fizzing across the sky.

"It was weird, they way they moved did look alien. Some people reckon they're fireworks but they were lit up in the sky for far too long, the local rugby club say they were lanterns that blew loose over the weekend but these objects were far too fast and too high up.

"They were unlike any aircraft I've seen. It's a mystery."

Hillary Potter from The British Earth Aerial Mystery Society (BEAMS) said they were being inundated with similar calls from across the country but said it was rare for such phenomena to be witnessed by so many people.

She said: "Such incidents have been on the increase recently. There are reports at the moment coming in from all over the country.

"We've had many reports of people seeing quite large unidentified objects in the skies. It's not going away, It seems these incidents are becoming more bold.

"People don't know what to do when they witness such sights and that's what we're here for. We take the reports very seriously."

A Mod Spokesman said: "The MoD does not have any expertise or role in respect of UFOs or flying saucer matters or to the question of the existence of extra terrestrial life forms, about which we remain totally open minded.

"I should add that to date the MoD knows of no evidence which substantiates the existence of these alleged phenomena. The MoD examines any reports of unidentified flying objects it receives solely to establish whether what was seen might have some defence significance.

"Namely whether there is any evidence that the UK air space might have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised foreign military activity.

"Unless there is evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom from an external military source, and to date no UFO report has revealed such evidence, we do not attempt to identify the precise nature of each sighting reported to us.

"We believe that rational explanations such as aircraft lights or natural phenomena could be found for them if resources were diverted for this purpose but its not the function of the MoD to provide this kind of aerial identification service."

Frankie Spray, from Wellesbourne Airfield, just outside Stratford, added: "The lights were nothing to do with us. None of our aircraft fly at night at this time of year.

"It's very bizarre but I've got no explanation as to what the lights were."

Birmingham Air Space which covers the skies over the town said they had not heard of any unusual activity showing up on the radar.